The invention relates to trash receptacles, and more particularly, to the methods and mechanisms by which disposable trash bags are placed, held and removed for disposal.
Over the last many years, plastic has been adapted to create disposable plastic trash bags. These bags are now found in common use in homes, businesses and industry. Typically, disposable plastic trash bags (hereafter simply "the bags") are packaged in rolls or in folded quantities in cardboard shipping cartons or boxes and shipped, bought, and sold in that condition. The shipping cartons are opened and the bags removed one at a time. When packaged in rolls, the bags must be separated one from another along manufactured sections as they are removed, one at a time, from the cartons.
Commonly, the bags are placed in trash cans, with the lips of the bags spread over the rims of the cans. Nothing is used to hold the bags to the cans, except the simple repose of the bag, or sometimes a lid placed on the top of the can.
When the bags are filled, the filled bags are lifted from the cans, tied or otherwise sealed shut, and put out for disposal. New bags are retrieved from storage areas, from their shipping cartons, and put in the emptied cans.
Disposable plastic trash bags have numerous advantages of sanitation, ease of handling and like. At the same time, however, they commonly require that the filled bags, which become heavy, be lifted manually and vertically to clear the tops of the trash cans, which requires that the heavy bags be lifted to heights of four to five feet, often at arms lengths from the body. Also, even when users place the shipping cartons of the bags near the cans, disposable plastic trash bags require that the users retrieve new bags from storage locations separate from the cans, which is often an inconvenience. Further, no convenient means is typically available to secure the bags to the cans, and the bags often collapse inside the cans, resulting in trash getting lodged between the bag and can, or atop but not in the bag. While at least one commercial user clips the bags to the cans, the clips become lost and are inconvenient to remove, save and then replace.